Kenya should invest more in Reproductive and maternal health of women and adolescent girls

Kenya has made steady progress in improving reproductive and maternal health outcomes in the last decade. Six out of ten pregnant women now receive skilled care at childbirth and over half receive postnatal care. However, despite this progress, Kenya could not achieve maternal and child health Millennium Development Goals that ended in 2015. In Kenya today, many pregnant women continue to die from preventable conditions. Access to quality Reproductive Maternal Health services remains a challenge across all levels of care, and inequities continue to persist among population subgroups, and between the rich and the poor.

According to the Kenya Demographic health Survey 2014, maternal mortality in Kenya Stands at 362 per 100,000 live births. Maternal mortality is higher in women living in rural areas and among poorer communities. Poor women in rural areas are the least likely to receive adequate health care because of the low numbers of skilled health workers in the area. Other factors that prevent women from receiving or seeking care during pregnancy and childbirth in rural areas are poverty, distance, lack of information, inadequate services and cultural practices.